Daily Gospel for Sunday, 24 May 2015
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Pentecost Sunday - Solemnity - Year B
Feast of the Church:
Pentecost Solemnity
On the day of Pentecost when the seven weeks of Easter had come to an end, Christ's Passover is fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, manifested, given, and communicated as a divine person: of his fullness, Christ, the Lord, pours out the Spirit in abundance. (Ac 2:36)
On that day, the Holy Trinity is fully revealed. Since that day, the Kingdom announced by Christ has been open to those who believe in him: in the humility of the flesh and in faith, they already share in the communion of the Holy Trinity. By his coming, which never ceases, the Holy Spirit causes the world to enter into the "last days," the time of the Church, the Kingdom already inherited though not yet consummated.
We have seen the true Light, we have received the heavenly Spirit, we have found the true faith: we adore the indivisible Trinity, who has saved us. (Byzantine liturgy, Pentecost Vespers, Troparion, repeated after communion)
The Holy Spirit - God's gift
"God is Love" (Jn 4:8.16) and love is his first gift, containing all others. "God's love has beenpoured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." (Rm 5:5)
Because we are dead or at least wounded through sin, the first effect of the gift of love is the forgiveness of our sins. The communion of the Holy Spirit (2 Co 13:13) in the Church restores to the baptized the divine likeness lost through sin.
He, then, gives us the "pledge" or "first fruits" of our inheritance: the very life of the Holy Trinity, which is to love as "God (has) loved us." This love (the "charity" of 1 Co 13) is the source of the new life in Christ, made possible because we have received "power" from the Holy Spirit. (Ac 1:8)
By this power of the Spirit, God's children can bear much fruit. He who has grafted us onto the true vine will make us bear "the fruit of the Spirit: . . . love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness , self-control."129 "We live by the Spirit"; the more we renounce ourselves, the more we "walk by the Spirit." (Ga 5:25)
Through the Holy Spirit we are restored to paradise, led back to the Kingdom of heaven, and adopted as children, given confidence to call God "Father" and to share in Christ's grace, called children of light and given a share in eternal glory. (St. Basil , De Spiritu Sancto, 15,36)
Saints of the day:
SAINTS DONATIAN and ROGATIAN
Martyrs
(c. 287)
Martyrs
(c. 287)
Here lived at Nantes (France) an illustrious young nobleman named Donatian, who, having received the holy Sacrament of Regeneration, led a most edifying life, and strove with much zeal to convert others to faith in Christ.
His elder brother, Rogatian, was not able to resist the moving example of his piety and the force of his discourses, and desired to be baptized . But the bishop having withdrawn and concealed himself for fear of the persecution , he was not able to receive that sacrament, but was shortly after baptized in his blood; for he declared himself a Christian at a time when to embrace that sacred profession was to become a candidate for martyrdom .
Donatian was impeached for professing himself a Christian, and for having withdrawn others, particularly his brother, from the worship of the gods. Donatian was therefore apprehended, and having boldly confessed Christ before the governor, was cast into prison and loaded with irons. Rogatian was also brought before the prefect, who endeavored first to gain him by flattering speeches, but Ending him inflexible, sent him to prison with his brother.
Rogatian grieved that he had not been able to receive the Sacrament of Baptism, and prayed that the kiss of peace which his brother gave him might supply it. Donatian also prayed for him that his faith might procure for him the effect of Baptism, and the effusion of his blood that of the Sacrament of Confirmation.
They passed that night together in fervent prayer . They were the next day called for again by the prefect, to whom they declared that they were ready to suffer for the name of Christ whatever torments were prepared for them. By the order of the inhuman judge they were first stretched on the rack, afterwards their hands were pierced with lanced, and lastly cut off, about the year 287.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Saint Vincent of Lerins
Feastday: May 24
Death: 445
Monk and writer. Born to a noble family of Gaul (modern France), he was probably the brother of St.Lupus of Troyes. Vincent initially served as a soldier but gave it up to become a monk on the island of Lerins off the southern French coast near Cannes. He was ordained there and in about 434 authored his famous work the Commonitorium. Written under the pseudonym Peregrinus the Commonitorium offered a guide to orthodox teaching and included his famous maxim, the Vincentian Canon, by which he hoped to be able to differentiate between true and false tradition: quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus credituni est ("what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all"). He believed that the ultimate source of Christian truth was Holy Scripture and that the authority of the Church was to be invoked to guarantee the correct interpretation of Scripture. A proponent of Semi-Pelagianism, he op-posed the Augustinian model of Grace and was probably the recipient of Prosper of Aquitaine's Responsiones ad Capitula Objectionum Vincentianarum.
Saint Amalia
Princess Amelia of the United Kingdom (7 August 1783 – 2 November 1810) was a member of the British Royal Family. She was the youngest daughter and child of King George III of the United Kingdom and his queen consort Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
Early life
Princess Amelia in 1785
Princess Amelia was born on 7 August 1783, at the Royal Lodge, Windsor, the youngest of George III and Queen Charlotte's 15 children as well as the only of her siblings born at Windsor Castle.[1][2] It is often said that she was her father's favourite; he affectionately called her "Emily". She was born after the early deaths of her two elder brothers, Octavius (23 February 1779 - 3 May 1783) and Alfred (22 September 1780 - 20 August 1782).[3] These deaths left a gap of almost six years between Amelia and her nearest surviving sibling, Princess Sophia. She was twenty-one years younger than her eldest sibling, George, and nearly seventeen years younger than her eldest sister, Charlotte.[4] As the daughter of the monarch, she was styled Her Royal Highness the Princess Amelia from birth.
Amelia was christened at the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace by John Moore, Archbishop of Canterbury, on 17 September 1783. Her godparents were the Prince of Wales (Amelia's eldest brother), the Princess Royal (her eldest sister), and the Princess Augusta Sophia (her second eldest sister).[5][4] She was the fifteenth sibling christened there.[4] She was later confirmed by the Archbishop on 24 December 1799. [6]
Coming so soon after the death of Octavius and shortly before the end of the war between Great Britain and the United States, Amelia's birth was felt to be a beginning of a new period of hope, and much was expected of her, even from birth.[7]"Our littlest sister is without exception one of the prettiest children I have ever seen," her oldest sister wrote to Prince William when Amelia was only a month old.[4] She was expected to be as beautiful, charming, and winning as Octavius, her father's previous favorite child, had been.[4] As a result of her two brothers' deaths, Amelia was considered as her father's favourite.[8][9]
From an early age, Amelia was conscious of her rank. A popular tale relates that when the famous tragedian Sarah Siddons expressed a desire to kiss the beautiful baby, Amelia "...instantly held her little hand out to be kissed, so early had she learnt the lessons of Royalty."[10] When Amelia was three, Fanny Burney, the Queen's Keeper of the Robes, commented that the princess could be "decorous and dignified when called upon to act en princess to any strangers, as if conscious of her high rank, and the importance of condescendingly sustaining it." Burney even dubbed her "the little idol". As the youngest of the thirteen surviving children, Amelia spent most of her time with her sisters Mary and Sophia, living in various royal residences. From the beginning, the three younger princesses did not receive as much parental attention as their elder sisters had, and spent a good deal of time away from the King and Queen, communicating with them mostly by letter.
It seems that the three youngest princesses were much wilder than their elder sisters, as evidenced by their behavior when they sat for a portrait in 1785. In 1770, Zoffany had been able to paint the King, the Queen, and all six eldest children with little difficulty. In 1785, however, Copley had so much difficulty getting the dogs, birds, and especially the three royal children to sit still that he never painted another portrait.[11] Compared to the carefully planned education that Charlotte, Augusta, and Elizabeth had been given, the education given to Mary, Sophia, and Amelia was based solely on what had come before. Amelia was only five years old when her father suffered his first bout of madness. As a consequence of her father's declining health, she never experienced the closeness and affection that had characterized the family during her elder sisters' early years.[12]
The Three Youngest Princesses, by John Singleton Copley, 1785 (Amelia is the baby)
Adulthood
Prior to 1788, King George had told his daughters that he would take them to Hanover and find them suitable husbands[13]despite misgivings he had, which stemmed from his sisters' own unhappy marriages.[14] He remarked, "I cannot deny that I have never wished to see any of them marry: I am happy in their company, and do not in the least want a separation."[15]However, the King suffered his first bout of madness that year, when Amelia was aged five. Further lapses into insanity occurred in 1801 and 1804, thus forestalling talk of marriage for his daughters. The question of matrimony was rarely raised; Queen Charlotte feared that the subject, which had always discomforted the King, would push him back into insanity. Furthermore, the Queen, under strain due to his illness, wanted the princesses to remain close to her.[9][15][16]
Amelia and her sisters, Charlotte, Augusta Sophia, Elizabeth, Mary and Sophia were over-protected and isolated, which restricted meeting eligible suitors of their own age.[9]
Illness
In 1798, Princess Amelia developed a pain in the joint of her knee, and was sent to the large seaside town of Worthing for recovery. She wrote to her father, "Certainly the vapour and warm sea bath are of use and therefore I hope that I shall be able to assure you that I am better."[17] The following year, Amelia temporarily recovered enough to join her family at Weymouth, where she doted upon her niece Princess Charlotte of Wales.[18] Throughout her life, Amelia was often in poor health; at the age of fifteen, she started to suffer the early symptoms of what turned out to be tuberculosis.[9]
In 1801, the princess was sent for a seaside cure at Weymouth to improve her health.[9] Among those staying with her was the Hon. Charles FitzRoy, an equerry 21 years older than her, and the son of Charles FitzRoy, 1st Baron Southampton.[19][20] Amelia fell in love with the equerry, desiring to marry him.[9] The Queen was told of the affair by a servant, but turned a blind eye. It was hoped that such discretion would prevent the King from discovering the liaison, which may have risked sending him into one of the bouts of mental illness to which he was becoming increasingly prone. Though she never gave up hope of marrying him,[9] Amelia knew she could not legally marry FitzRoy due to the provisions of the Royal Marriages Act passed by her father's Parliament (at least until she reached the age of 25, after which she could receive permission by assent of the Privy Council).[citation needed] She would later tell her brother Frederick that she considered herself to be married, taking the initials A. F. R. (Amelia FitzRoy).[9]
In 1808, Amelia had a severe attack of measles and the depressed atmosphere at home with her mother in Windsor made her even more miserable. The anxious King George decided to send Amelia to Weymouth, accompanied by her sister Mary. Her health was improved only a little, but she found comfort in quietly resting. In 1809, she could occasionally take short walks in the garden. This improvement was but temporary, however, and in August 1810 her sufferings grew sharper, whilst in October of that year she was seized with St. Anthony's fire (erysipelas), which cut off all hope and confined her to her bed on the 25th. The king summoned his daughter's physicians to him at seven o'clock every morning and three or four other times during the day, questioning them minutely as to her condition. She lingered a few days more, waited upon to the last by her favourite and devoted sister, Mary.[21] Her 2 November death occurred on her brother Edward's birthday.[22]
The dying princess had a mourning ring made for the King, composed of a lock of her hair under crystal set round with diamonds. He purportedly burst into tears upon receiving it.[23] Otherwise, her will dictated all her possessions be given to Charles FitzRoy.[20] Amelia was buried in the royal vault in St George's Chapel,Windsor.[23][24] Her eldest brother, later George IV, is reputed to have requested her death mask.
Death and aftermath
After Amelia's death, George Villiers, the King's bailiff, and younger brother of Thomas Villiers, 2nd Earl of Clarendon, attempted to blackmail the King and Queen with letters belonging to Amelia, after the disappearance of £280,000 in his control.[25] Villiers was father of later diplomat and statesman George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon.
Her death is partly credited to the decline in her father's health which resulted in his insanity[24][26][27] and the subsequent invocation of the Regency Act of 1811.[citation needed] According to his doctor Dr. Willis, the king would later cry "in a wild, monotonous, delirious way, 'Oh Emily [Princess Amelia], why won't you save your father? I hate all the physicians..."[28] Another of King George's delusions included the belief that a healthy Amelia was only staying in Hanover with a large family of her own, where she would "never grow older and always be well."[29]
Amelia has been described as a beautiful, slender girl with ruby lips and auburn hair. Reportedly she was the "most turbulent and tempestuous of all the Princesses". However, she is also said to have been gentle, unselfish and highly intelligent. These qualities led her sister-in-law Princess Caroline, who was known to despise her in-laws, to call Amelia the "most amiable of the bunch". Amelia was a favorite of both the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Sussex, who called her a "lovely creature". Amelia adored the former and once told him that she had always loved him better than her other brothers. He for his part loved her perhaps more than he did his other sisters (with the possible exception of Princess Mary) and was devastated when she died. So deeply affected was he by her death that after her funeral, he could never again sleep in a room that was not lit by several wax candles. He also burst into tears at the mention of her name more than three years after her demise.
Pentecost Sunday - Solemnity - Year B
Acts of the Apostles 2:1 The festival of Shavu‘ot arrived, and the believers all gathered together in one place. 2 Suddenly there came a sound from the sky like the roar of a violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire, which separated and came to rest on each one of them. 4 They were all filled with the Ruach HaKodesh and began to talk in different languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.
5 Now there were staying in Yerushalayim religious Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd gathered; they were confused, because each one heard the believers speaking in his own language. 7 Totally amazed, they asked, “How is this possible? Aren’t all these people who are speaking from the Galil? 8 How is it that we hear them speaking in our native languages? 9 We are Parthians, Medes, Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Y’hudah, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, 10 Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome; 11 Jews by birth and proselytes; Jews from Crete and from Arabia. . . ! How is it that we hear them speaking in our own languages about the great things God has done?”
Psalms 104:1 Bless Adonai, my soul!
Adonai, my God, you are very great;
you are clothed with glory and majesty,
How many [of them there are]!
In wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creations.
29 If you hide your face, they vanish;
if you hold back their breath, they perish
and return to their dust.
30 If you send out your breath, they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth.
31 May the glory of Adonai last forever!
May Adonai rejoice in his works!
34 May my musings be pleasing to him;
I will rejoice in Adonai.
Letter to the Galatians 5:16 What I am saying is this: run your lives by the Spirit. Then you will not do what your old nature wants. 17 For the old nature wants what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit wants what is contrary to the old nature. These oppose each other, so that you find yourselves unable to carry out your good intentions. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, then you are not in subjection to the system that results from perverting the Torah into legalism.
19 And it is perfectly evident what the old nature does. It expresses itself in sexual immorality, impurity and indecency; 20 involvement with the occult and with drugs; in feuding, fighting, becoming jealous and getting angry; in selfish ambition, factionalism, intrigue 21 and envy; in drunkenness, orgies and things like these. I warn you now as I have warned you before: those who do such things will have no share in the Kingdom of God!
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 humility, self control. Nothing in the Torah stands against such things.
24 Moreover, those who belong to the Messiah Yeshua have put their old nature to death on the stake, along with its passions and desires. 25 Since it is through the Spirit that we have Life, let it also be through the Spirit that we order our lives day by day.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 15:26 “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send you from the Father — the Spirit of Truth, who keeps going out from the Father — he will testify on my behalf. 27 And you testify too, because you have been with me from the outset.
16:12 “I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now. 13 However, when the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own initiative but will say only what he hears. He will also announce to you the events of the future. 14 He will glorify me, because he will receive from what is mine and announce it to you. 15 Everything the Father has is mine; this is why I said that he receives from what is mine and will announce it to you.
Pentecost Sunday - Solemnity - Year B
Commentary of the day:
Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Sermon 271
"We hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God" (Acts 2,11)
Joyfully we have seen this Pentecost day arise, my brethren, in which holy Church shines out in the eyes of the faithful and their hearts are set on fire. For we are celebrating that day on which our Lord Jesus Christ, after his resurrection and the glory of his ascension, sent the Holy Spirit…
This wind purified hearts from the straw of the purely natural life; this fire burnt up the grass of their former desires; these tongues, spoken by the apostles filled with the Holy Spirit, prefigured the Church’s expansion through the languages of all nations. After the flood, sacrilege had built a high tower against the Lord and humankind deserved to be divided by many languages… (Gn 11); but now the humility and devotion of believers subjects the variety of these languages to the unity of the Church. Charity reunites what discord had dispersed and the different parts of humankind, like scattered members of a single body, are rejoined to each other and to Christ, their leader and their only Head (Col 2,19). They are dissolved into unity by the fire of love…
Brothers and sisters, members of Christ’s body, seeds of unity, children of peace: celebrate this day with joy, celebrate it in all security. Because you are witnessing what was formerly made known by the coming of the Holy Spirit being accomplished in you. Each one of those who then received the Holy Spirit spoke every language for himself alone. Today, the unity of the Church spread amongst all peoples speaks all languages, and it is at the heart of this unity that you possess the Holy Spirit, you who are not separated by any schism from the Church of Christ which speaks all languages.
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